Calculation and Appetizers

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"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."

A divine technique refined enough to manifest without a closed shell.

An open-barrier domain.

The imagined construct, a shrine covered in corpses and bones, grew violently into reality.

Standing atop the shrine, Sukuna appeared in the middle of the street.

Boom!

Mahoraga stepped out of the crater and closed in with near-teleporting speed.

Silently sensing a certain person's distance, Sukuna adjusted the domain's range to a radius of one hundred meters.

And limited it to the surface.

Boom!

Hundreds of millions of invisible blades radiated outward from Sukuna in every direction.

Within the domain's range, whether it was a sorcerer carrying cursed energy or an ordinary human...

Whether it was a building, phone, or high-rise without a trace of cursed energy...

With the sure-hit effect active, people and objects alike were struck by endless slashes.

In an instant, they were cut into particles too fine for the naked eye to distinguish.

A light wind carried the remains of countless dismembered humans away like dust.

Mahoraga, already adapted to slashes, continued walking toward Sukuna under the attack of those countless blades.

The damage from the slashes could be resisted, but its forward movement slowed greatly.

The terrifying shikigami that had severed Sukuna's arm three times...

Sukuna had already inferred the method to defeat it.

He could not give Mahoraga time to adapt.

He had to kill it in one blow with a technique it had never seen before.

A prolonged battle would only let Mahoraga grow stronger with each minute and second.

Sukuna chanted words ancient and difficult to understand.

Flames like blooming flowers spread from his fingers across his body.

"Open."

The full limit of sixteen fingers shone at that moment.

The vast cursed energy pouring out bloomed into a brilliant fire in the center of Shibuya's streets.

"Damn it."

Sukuna's face suddenly turned extremely dark.

The instant the flames swept out, the terrifying shikigami was abruptly covered in thick black shadow.

Only half its body had burned before Mahoraga vanished from where it stood.

...

Boom!

The roar that came a step later pierced the sky.

All of Shibuya shook as if struck by an earthquake.

A quarter of Shibuya under the Curtain became a horrifying hellscape.

The empty ground looked as if someone had erased it with a giant eraser.

There was no trace that buildings or even humans had ever existed there.

The hundred-meter radius of charred black earth glowed faintly with sparks.

At the center, only Sukuna remained, his face ferocious as he stared fixedly in one direction.

Inside Yuji's body, he had seen Itsuki beat Jogo down.

He had also seen Megumi display the Ten Shadows Technique.

The instant Mahoraga was wrapped in shadow, Sukuna realized it.

He had been played.

"Heh. What a nice little scheme."

Sukuna's voice was cold, his face like ice.

"I was only walking the dog. Sorry I forgot the leash."

Itsuki had appeared opposite Sukuna at some point, his voice calm.

"What?"

Itsuki raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't tell me the mighty King of Curses..."

"Was frightened by one dog."

His contemptuous tone carried a faint mockery.

Sukuna knew those indifferent eyes well.

They belonged to someone who believed himself invincible, someone absolutely confident his strength stood far above the opponent's.

"Brat, I am looking forward more and more to the screams you make before you die."

Sukuna answered with undisguised malice that surged into the sky.

Excluding the enhancement from his domain's effects, Sukuna estimated Mahoraga's combat power at roughly eighteen fingers.

The flame technique would likely require three adaptations.

The first had already been completed.

He only had two more chances to solve that thing.

Itsuki Zenin was strong, comparable to Satoru Gojo.

That was Sukuna's current unilateral understanding.

If he could recover his full strength...

The advantage would be his.

Sensing Yuji's consciousness waking inside the body, Sukuna sneered at Itsuki.

"The brat called Yuji, Kenjaku, and I are all parts of your plan, aren't we?"

It sounded like a question, but Sukuna spoke with absolute certainty.

Sealed inside Yuji, Sukuna's soul could perceive everything Yuji Itadori experienced.

He had already guessed part of Itsuki's plan.

He also did not need to worry that Itsuki would destroy Yuji's body here.

The Culling Game...

Sukuna had already bound himself to Kenjaku's plan through a Binding Vow long ago.

"Wait."

Sukuna looked at Itsuki, arrogant as ever.

"To me, you are only a different feast from Satoru Gojo."

As if an adult were humoring a child throwing a tantrum, Itsuki nodded without caring.

He did not speak a word of rebuttal.

But the faint smile at the corner of his mouth looked exactly like mockery.

"Soon. We will meet again very soon."

Sukuna launched his final counterattack with those words, then his consciousness sank directly back into the body.

...

Thud.

Yuji, having regained control of his body, collapsed to his knees.

He ignored the ground hot enough to burn skin.

He ignored the culprit who had sealed Gojo-sensei standing nearby.

Yuji fell forward, his body curled tight like a shrimp.

Memories flooded over him, covering the sky and earth.

Yuji received a gift from the most evil being.

Death.

Death.

Death.

The final moments of thousands upon thousands of humans surged into his mind like a tide.

He could not refuse them.

He could not forget them.

"Guh!"

As if trying to vomit out his heart and liver, Yuji hammered the cracked ground while tears fell without stopping.

With Sukuna's help, his body had returned to peak condition.

His mind, however, had been pushed to the edge of collapse.

He remembered his grandfather's words before death.

Go help people. Die surrounded by others.

At this moment, those words only felt harsh.

Yuji's mind was full of questions aimed at himself.

Why wasn't Yuji Itadori the one who died?

And why...

Why had he joined Jujutsu High?

Itsuki stood nearby without speaking, like an audience member.

His right eye shifted into Rinnegan mode as he quietly observed Yuji Itadori breaking down.

He had detailed information from Kenjaku, but some things still needed to be confirmed.

In that ninja world...

The Rinnegan was known as the eye that controlled life and death.

Itsuki had not yet mastered divine techniques such as revival or soul extraction.

But merely observing the soul through the body...

That was something he could do now.

"So it is as expected..."

Itsuki spoke softly, the meaning unclear, then vanished from where he stood.

No comfort.

No conversation.

To Itsuki...

Yuji Itadori, the protagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen who did not quite feel like the protagonist, was also only a stepping stone on the road to godhood.

At most, he was one of the few stones closest to the divine seat.

The strongest of the modern era, Satoru Gojo?

The thousand-year King of Curses?

To borrow Sukuna's wording, those two were nothing more than appetizers before the main course.

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